Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) |

Computer Networks
Since IP does not have a inbuilt mechanism for sending error and control messages. It depends
on Internet Control Message Protocol(ICMP) to provide an error control. It is used for reporting
errors and management queries. It is a supporting protocol and used by networks devices like
routers for sending the error messages and operations information.
e.g. the requested service is not available or that a host or router could not be reached.

When you send data from one device to another remote device, the IPv4 Datagram often travels through one
or more routers. There can be errors at routers while they try to forward the IPv4 Datagram to its final
destination. The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) protocol is used to report problems with delivery
of IPv4 Datagrams within an IPv4network. ICMP is also used for other diagnosis and troubleshooting
functions.

An Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packet header is 8 Bytes long. The first four bytes always have
the same meaning, and the contents of the remaining four depend on the ICMP packet type. An ICMP header
follows the IP header in an IP datagram packet and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is considered to
be an integral part of IPv4.

The most common ICMP messages

Echo Request and Echo Reply: Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is often used during test the
connectivity between devices. We can use the ping (Packet InterNet Grouper, a command-line utility used to
check the connectivity between two devices) command to check connectivity from one device with another
device and the ping command is using Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP). Ping command sends an IP
datagram packet to the IPv4 address of the device we are trying to check the connectivity and requests the
destination device to return the data sent in a response datagram. Ping command uses Internet Control Message
Protocol (ICMP) Echo Request and Echo Reply.

Source Quench: If a device is sending large amounts of data to another remote device, the volume can flood the
router with data. The router can use Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) to send a Source Quench message
to the source IPv4 address to ask it to slow down the rate at which it is sending data.

Destination Unreachable: If a router receives a datagram that cannot be delivered, Internet Control Message
Protocol (ICMP) returns a Destination Unreachable message to the source IPv4 address.

Time Exceeded: Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) sends this message to the source IP if a datagram is
discarded because Time-to-Live (TTL) value reaches zero. One reason is the destination device is too many router
hops away to reach with the current Time-to-Live (TTL) value or a routing loop (An undesirable condition when
the IP Datagrams loop infinitely between the routers, without reaching the destination).

Address Resolution Protocol (arp)

Most of the computer programs/applications use logical address (IP address) to send/receive
messages, however the actual communication happens over the physical address (MAC
address) i.e from layer 2 of OSI model. So our mission is to get the destination MAC address
which helps in communicating with other devices. This is where ARP comes into the picture, its
functionality is to translate IP address to physical address.

The acronym ARP stands for Address Resolution Protocol which is one of the most
important protocols of the Network layer in the OSI model.
Note: ARP finds the hardware address, also known as Media Access Control (MAC)
address, of a host from its known IP address.

magine a device wants to communicate with the other over the internet. What ARP does? Is it
broadcast a packet to all the devices of the source network.
The devices of the network peel the header of the data link layer from the protocol data unit
(PDU) called frame and transfers the packet to the network layer (layer 3 of OSI) where the
network ID of the packet is validated with the destination IP’s network ID of the packet and if it’s
equal then it responds to the source with the MAC address of the destination, else the packet
reaches the gateway of the network and broadcasts packet to the devices it is connected with
and validates their network ID

The important terms associated with ARP are :

1. ARP Cache: After resolving MAC address, the ARP sends it to the source where it
stores in a table for future reference. The subsequent communications can use the
MAC address from the table
2. ARP Cache Timeout: It indicates the time for which the MAC address in the ARP
cache can reside
3. ARP request: This is nothing but broadcasting a packet over the network to
validate whether we came across destination MAC address or not.
ARP request packet contains:
1. The physical address of the sender.
2. The IP address of the sender.
3. The physical address of the receiver is 0s.
4. The IP address of the receiver
Note, that the ARP packet is encapsulated directly into data link frame.
4. ARP response/reply: It is the MAC address response that the source receives
from the destination which aids in further communication of the data.

Inverse Address Resolution Protocol (InARP) –

Instead of using Layer-3 address (IP address) to find MAC address, Inverse ARP uses
MAC address to find IP address. As the name suggests, InARP is just inverse of ARP.
Reverse ARP has been replaced by BOOTP and later DHCP but Inverse ARP is solely
used for device configuration. Inverse ARP is enabled by default in ATM(Asynchronous
Transfer Mode) networks. InARP is used to find Layer-3 address from Layer-2 address
(DLCI in frame relay). Inverse ARP dynamically maps local DLCIs to remote IP
addresses when you configure Frame Relay. When using inverse ARP, we know the
DLCI of remote router but don’t know its IP address. InARP sends a request to obtain
that IP address and map it to the Layer-2 frame-relay DLCI.

DHCP (Dynamic Host

Configuration Protocol)
Posted by: Margaret Rouse
WhatIs.com

Contributor(s): John Burke and Kate Gerwig

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DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a network management

protocol used to dynamically assign an Internet Protocol (IP) address to any
device, or node, on a network so they can communicate using IP. DHCP
automates and centrally manages these configurations rather than requiring
network administrators to manually assign IP addresses to all network
devices. DHCP can be implemented on small local networks as well as large
enterprise networks.

DHCP will assign new IP addresses in each location when devices are moved
from place to place, which means network administrators do not have to
manually initially configure each device with a valid IP address or reconfigure
the device with a new IP address if it moves to a new location on the network.
Versions of DHCP are available for use in Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4)
and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).
How DHCP works

DHCP runs at the application layer of the Transmission Control

Protocol/IP (TCP/IP) protocol stack to dynamically assign IP addresses to
DHCP clients and to allocate TCP/IP configuration information to DHCP
clients. This includes subnet mask information, default gateway IP addresses
and domain name system (DNS) addresses.

Pros and Cons of Using DHCP

A computer, or any other device that connects to a network (local or internet), must be
properly configured to communicate on that network. Since DHCP allows that
configuration to happen automatically, it's used in almost every device that connects to
a network including computers, switches, smartphones, gaming consoles, etc.

Because of this dynamic IP address assignment, there's less of a chance that two
devices will have the same IP address, which is very easy to run into when using
manually-assigned, static IP addresses.

Using DHCP also makes a network much easier to manage. From an administrative
point of view, every device on the network can get an IP address with nothing more than
their default network settings, which is set up to obtain an address automatically. The
only other alternative is to manually assign addresses to each and every device on the
network.

Because these devices can get an IP address automatically, they can move freely from
one network to another (given that they're all set up with DHCP) and receive an IP
address automatically, which is super helpful with mobile devices.

In most cases, when a device has an IP address assigned by a DHCP server, that IP
address will change each time the device joins the network. If IP addresses are
assigned manually, it means administration must not only give out a specific address to
each new client, but existing addresses that are already assigned must be
manually unassigned for any other device to use that same address. This is not only
time-consuming, but manually configuring each device also increases the chance of
running into human-made errors.

Though there are plenty of advantages to using DHCP, there are certainly some
disadvantages as well. Dynamic, changing IP addresses should not be used for devices
that are stationary and need constant access, like printers and file servers.

Although devices like that exist predominantly in office environments, it's impractical to
assign them with an ever-changing IP address. For example, if a network printer has an
IP address that will change at some point in the future, then every computer that's
connected to that printer will have to regularly update their settings so their computers
will understand how to contact the printer.

User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a Transport Layer protocol. UDP is a part of Internet
Protocol suite, referred as UDP/IP suite. Unlike TCP, it is unreliable and
connectionless protocol. So, there is no need to establish connection prior to data
transfer.
Though Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is the dominant transport layer protocol
used with most of Internet services; provides assured delivery, reliability and much more
but all these services cost us with additional overhead and latency. Here, UDP comes
into picture. For the realtime services like computer gaming, voice or video
communication, live conferences; we need UDP. Since high performance is needed,
UDP permits packets to be dropped instead of processing delayed packets. There is no
error checking in UDP, so it also save bandwidth.

The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is simplest Transport Layer

communication protocol available of the TCP/IP protocol suite. It involves
minimum amount of communication mechanism. UDP is said to be an
unreliable transport protocol but it uses IP services which provides best effort
delivery mechanism.

In UDP, the receiver does not generate an acknowledgement of packet

received and in turn, the sender does not wait for any acknowledgement of
packet sent. This shortcoming makes this protocol unreliable as well as easier
on processing.

Requirement of UDP
A question may arise, why do we need an unreliable protocol to transport the
data? We deploy UDP where the acknowledgement packets share significant
amount of bandwidth along with the actual data. For example, in case of
video streaming, thousands of packets are forwarded towards its users.
Acknowledging all the packets is troublesome and may contain huge amount
of bandwidth wastage. The best delivery mechanism of underlying IP protocol
ensures best efforts to deliver its packets, but even if some packets in video
streaming get lost, the impact is not calamitous and can be ignored easily.
Loss of few packets in video and voice traffic sometimes goes unnoticed.

Features
 UDP is used when acknowledgement of data does not hold any significance.

 UDP is good protocol for data flowing in one direction.

 UDP is simple and suitable for query based communications.

  UDP is not connection oriented.

 UDP does not provide congestion control mechanism.

 UDP does not guarantee ordered delivery of data.

 UDP is stateless.

 UDP is suitable protocol for streaming applications such as VoIP, multimedia

streaming.

UDP Header
UDP header is as simple as its function.

UDP header contains four main parameters:

 Source Port - This 16 bits information is used to identify the source port of the
packet.

 Destination Port - This 16 bits information, is used identify application level

service on destination machine.

 Length - Length field specifies the entire length of UDP packet (including
header). It is 16-bits field and minimum value is 8-byte, i.e. the size of UDP
header itself.

 Checksum - This field stores the checksum value generated by the sender before
sending. IPv4 has this field as optional so when checksum field does not contain
any value it is made 0 and all its bits are set to zero.

tunneling or port forwarding

Posted by: Margaret Rouse
WhatIs.com

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Tunneling, also known as "port forwarding," is the transmission of data

intended for use only within a private, usually corporate network through a
public network in such a way that the routing nodes in the public network are
unaware that the transmission is part of a private network. Tunneling is
generally done by encapsulating the private network data and protocol
information within the public network transmission units so that the private
network protocol information appears to the public network as data. Tunneling
allows the use of the Internet, which is a public network, to convey data on
behalf of a private network.

Techopedia explains Tunneling

In tunneling, the data are broken into smaller pieces called packets as they move along
the tunnel for transport. As the packets move through the tunnel, they are encrypted
and another process called encapsulation occurs. The private network data and the
protocol information that goes with it are encapsulated in public network transmission
units for sending. The units look like public data, allowing them to be transmitted across
the Internet. Encapsulation allows the packets to arrive at their proper destination. At
the final destination, de-capsulation and decryption occur.
There are various protocols that allow tunneling to occur, including:
  Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP): PPTP keeps proprietary data secure
even when it is being communicated over public networks. Authorized users can
access a private network called a virtual private network, which is provided by an
Internet service provider. This is a private network in the “virtual” sense because
it is actually being created in a tunneled environment.
 Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP): This type of tunneling protocol involves a
combination of using PPTP and Layer 2 Forwarding.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the standard protocol for email services on a
TCP/IP network. SMTP provides the ability to send and receive email messages.
SMTP is an application-layer protocol that enables the transmission and delivery of
email over the Internet. SMTP is created and maintained by the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF).
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is also known as RFC 821 and RFC 2821.

SMTP is part of the application layer of the TCP/IP protocol. Using a process called "store
and forward," SMTP moves your email on and across networks. It works closely with
something called the Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) to send your communication to the right
computer and email inbox.

SMTP spells out and directs how your email moves from your computer's MTA to an MTA
on another computer, and even several computers. Using that "store and forward" feature
mentioned before, the message can move in steps from your computer to its destination. At
each step, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is doing its job. Lucky for us, this all takes place
behind the scenes, and we don't need to understand or operate SMTP.

SMTP at work.
SMTP provides a set of codes that simplify the communication of email messages between
email servers (the network computer that handles email coming to you and going out). It's a
kind of shorthand that allows a server to break up different parts of a message into
categories the other server can understand. When you send a message out, it's turned into
strings of text that are separated by the code words (or numbers) that identify the purpose
of each section.

SMTP provides those codes, and email server software is designed to understand what
they mean. As each message travels towards its destination, it sometimes passes through a
number of computers as well as their individual MTAs. As it does, it's briefly stored before it
moves on to the next computer in the path. Think of it as a letter going through different
hands as it winds its way to the right mailbox.

Post Office Protocols (e.g. POP3)

The Post Office Protocol (POP) is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used
by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection.
POP supports simple download-and-delete requirements for access to remote
mailboxes. Although most POP clients have an option to leave mail on server after
download, e-mail clients using POP generally connect, retrieve all messages, store
them on the user’s PC as new messages, delete them from the server, and then
disconnect.
POP3 currently supports several authentication methods to provide varying levels of
protection against illegitimate access to a user’s e-mail. Most are provided by the POP3
extension mechanisms. POP3 clients support SASL authentication methods via the
AUTH extension. POP is a challenge/response protocol which uses the MD5 hash
function in an attempt to avoid replay attacks and disclosure of the shared secret.
Clients implementing APOP include Mozilla Thunderbird, Opera Mail, Eudora, KMail,
Novell Evolution, RimArts’ Becky!, Windows Live Mail, PowerMail, Apple Mail, and Mutt.
Available messages to the client are fixed when a POP session opens the maildrop, and
are identified by message-number local to that session or, optionally, by a unique
identifier assigned to the message by the POP server. Mail is retrieved and marked for
deletion by message-number. When the client exits the session, the mail marked for
deletion is removed from the maildrop.

What is a IMAP?
If you've ever set up an email account before, you've probably been asked which email
protocol you would like to use: POP or IMAP. To the uninitiated, this question can be
positively mind-boggling. However, the selection that you make will have a major impact on
your experience of sending, receiving and otherwise using email messages. While POP, or
Post Office Protocol, used to be the most popular type of email protocol, IMAP - or Internet
Message Access Protocol - is the go-to choice of most people these days. Learn more
about what IMAP is, how it works, how it compares to POP and its main advantages below.

IMAP: The Basics

As its name implies, IMAP allows you to access your email messages wherever you are;
much of the time, it is accessed via the Internet. Basically, email messages are stored on
servers. Whenever you check your inbox, your email client contacts the server to connect
you with your messages. When you read an email message using IMAP, you aren't actually
downloading or storing it on your computer; instead, you are reading it off of the server. As
a result, it's possible to check your email from several different devices without missing a
thing.

Mail Servers, Email Clients and IMAP

The easiest way to understand how IMAP works is by thinking of it as an intermediary
between your email client and your email server. Email servers are always used when
sending and receiving email messages. With IMAP, though, they remain on the server
unless you explicitly delete them from it. When you sign into an email client like Microsoft
Outlook, it contacts the email server using IMAP. The headers of all of your email messages
are then displayed. If you choose to read a message, it is quickly downloaded so that you
can see it - emails are not downloaded unless you need to open them.

IMAP versus POP

If you think that IMAP and POP are interchangeable, think again. POP works by contacting
your email server and downloading all of your new messages from it. Once they are
downloaded, they disappear from the server. If you decide to check your email from a
different device, the messages that have been downloaded previously will not be available
to you. POP works fine for those who generally only check their email messages from a
single device; those who travel or need to access their email from various devices are much
better off with IMAP-based email service.

Using IMAP
Unlike POP, IMAP allows you to access, organize, read and sort your email messages
without having to download them first. As a result, IMAP is very fast and efficient. The
server also keeps a record of all of the messages that you send, allowing you to access
your sent messages from anywhere. IMAP does not move messages from the server to
your computer; instead, it synchronizes the email that's on your computer with the email
that's on the server.
Main Advantages of IMAP
There are several advantages to using IMAP. First, it allows you to access your email
messages from anywhere, via as many different devices as you want. Second, it only
downloads a message when you click on it. As a result, you do not have to wait for all of
your new messages to download from the server before you can read them. Third,
attachments are not automatically downloaded with IMAP. As a result, you're able to check
your messages a lot more quickly and have greater control over which attachments are
opened. Finally, IMAP can be used offline just like POP - you can basically enjoy the
benefits of both protocols in one.

As the world becomes more mobile than ever, IMAP is becoming more and more popular.
The proliferation of smartphones, laptops, tablets and other devices is making the demand
for IMAP stronger than ever. While POP will remain popular with people who only access
their email via one or two devices - and those who have slow connections to the Internet -
IMAP is sure to remain the protocol of choice for most of today's busy people.